Samsung Gear Fit2 hands on

We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on the Gear Fit2, Samsung’s new feature-packed GPS sports band. Naturally, we immediately strapped it onto our wrist and put it through its paces. Here’s what we made of it…

Attractive, comfortable design

The Gear Fit2 has got to be one of the most comfortable wearables we’ve tried on.

The display of the Gear Fit2 is curved, so it wraps naturally round your wrist. The textured elastomer strap looks stylish, and feels great. And because the whole thing is so lightweight, it’s easy to forget you’re wearing it once you’ve had it on for a while.

Bright, colourful display

It’s a little smaller than the original Gear Fit’s 1.84-inch display, but it’s also wider, so there’s actually more room on it to display all your essential fitness info.

What’s more, the screen is made from Gorilla Glass 3, so it’s tough enough to handle everyday knocks and scrapes without leaving a mark.

User-friendly interface

The Gear Fit2’s interface lets you swipe down and sideways from the homescreen to access its feature and notification screens.

Swiping right, for example, takes you through various exercise panes. You can view stats like your heart rate and the number of steps you’ve taken, and you can add additional panes of your own, like how much coffee you drink through the day.

The Gear Fit2 also has a couple of physical buttons on the right hand side. The top one acts as a ‘back’ button, and the bottom one works as either a ‘home’ button, or a power button if you hold it down for a couple of seconds.

Leave your phone at home…

The Gear Fit2 includes built-in GPS – a great feature for all of us who’d rather leave our phone at home when we head out for a run, bike ride or long walk. The GPS accurately tracks your location and speed, and you’ll be able to view a map of your route alongside your current pace.

Auto activity tracking

Another feature we really like on the Gear Fit2 is its auto activity tracking. You don’t have to do anything to let your wearable know you’re running, cycling, walking or even doing a few squats – it knows automatically. It can even tell when you’re sleeping.

The Gear Fit2 will automatically detect and track all your different activities, and it’ll then sync up with the S Health app on your phone to give you an overview of exactly what you’ve been up to each day. With S Health, you’ll also be able to set goals for yourself, and challenge your mates for a bit of extra motivation.

What makes the Gear Fit2 tick…

The Samsung Gear Fit2 is compatible with any Android phone running KitKat or above. It runs on Tizen, the Korean company’s own operating system, and there’s a nippy 1GHz dual-core processor keeping everything ticking along. The 200mAh battery should last 3-4 days of normal use.

The Gear Fit2 also gives you 4GB of storage, so you’ll be able to store a decent amount of music and use wireless headphones to listen to it when you’re out and about.

We’ve had a great time with the Gear Fit2, and couldn't really fault it. It's a quality wearable, with some outstanding features.

How does the Gear Fit2 sound to you? Do you like what you’ve heard so far? Drop us a comment below and tell us what you think.